Gary Hompland
Question: "I harvested a deer during the archery season and observed a lot of ticks on the animal. Do these ticks harm the animal or affect the meat?"
Answer: While deer do have ticks, more likely what you observed is deer-keds.
Deer-keds are frequently misidentified as ticks, and while they may superficially look similar there are some notable differences. Keds are usually mobile and are found on the belly of the animal. Ticks on the other hand are attached to skin, do not move around much, and are usually found around the head and neck.
The deer-ked is an introduced species of biting fly originating in Europe, Siberia and Northern China. The keds occurs naturally as a parasite on red deer, roe deer, elk and sika deer in the Old World. In North America they are found on deer, elk, cattle, horses and humans.
On humans keds will engorge on blood in 15 to 25 minutes. The bite is barely noticeable and leaves little trace. After a period of a few days the bite site will harden and redden. The itch lasting 14 to 20 days is probably the result of the body's reaction to the fly saliva. Deer-keds are not known to be a vector for other diseases. Deer-keds will not reproduce on any host other than deer and have no known impact on the meat.
Deer-keds have very little impact on the health of deer when occurring at reasonable levels. Some anaemia may be possible in deer containing extremely high numbers of keds over a prolonged period of time.
References
• Steve Jacobs, Sr. Extension Assoc Penn State College of Agricultural SciencesCooperative Extension Entomological notes October 1998.
• Haigh, J.C., C. Macintosh, and F. Griffin. 2002. Viral, parasitic and prion diseases of farmed deer and bison. Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz 21(2)219-249.
http://www.oie.int/eng/publicat/rt/2102/HAIGH.pdfGary Hompland, regional conservation officer for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, may be reached at 208-324-4350 or
ghompland@idfg.idaho.gov.
